Section 7: Outreach and Education Activities - NOAA

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Definitions of Severe Weather Events and Clouds Used in Spotter Classes Information provided on this page do not replace or substitute for material presented in NWS-provided severe weather spotter classes. The information provided below is only for quick reference purposes. A complete NWS glossary can be found at this link: http://forecast.weather.gov/glossary.php? Refer to the SkyWarn and Awareness type web pages on the NWS WFO web sites for additional severe weather spotter information and resources. Tornado: A violently, rotating, column of air, extending from the cloud-base to the ground. The tornado is rotating air/wind — you can’t see air. There may or may not be a visible condensation-funnel associated within the tornado. (Photo: Rusty Kapela) Funnel-cloud: A funnel-shaped, rotating cloud feature extending from a cloud base, but is not in contact with the ground; nor is there any swirling/rotating dirt & debris spray/whirl at the ground-level (nothing going on at groundlevel). (Photo: Doug Raflik) Rotating Wall Cloud: A localized, persistent, often abrupt lowering from a convective rain-free base. Wall clouds can range from a fraction of a mile up to nearly five miles in diameter, and normally are found on the south or southwest (inflow) side of the thunderstorm. When seen from within several miles, many wall clouds exhibit rapid upward motion and cyclonic rotation. However, not all wall clouds rotate. Rotating wall clouds usually develop before strong or violent tornadoes, by anywhere from a few minutes up to nearly an hour. Some wall clouds look like beer-barrels, or big flat thumbs, or may be fragmented. Some wall clouds don’t rotate. (Photo: Frank Weisensel) Downburst: A strong downdraft current of air from a cumulonimbus cloud, often associated with intense thunderstorms. Downdrafts may produce damaging winds at the surface. A microburst is a convective downdraft with an affected outflow area of less than 2 miles wide and peak winds lasting less than 5 minutes. Microbursts may induce dangerous horizontal/vertical wind shears, which can adversely affect aircraft performance and cause property damage. A macroburst is a convective downdraft with an affected outflow area of at least 2 miles wide and peak winds lasting between 5 and 20 minutes. Intense macrobursts may cause tornado-force damage of up to EF3 intensity. Yellow arrows pointing downward in image indicate the downburst. Shelf Cloud: A horizontally-orientated, low-hanging, shelf or snowplowshaped cloud feature on the front side of downbursts, most common with squall lines (a line of thunderstorms). Some non-rotating, cloud fragments (scud) on the underside of the shelf cloud may briefly resemble funnelclouds or tornadoes. These scary-looking, non-rotating cloud fragments (scud) generate the vast majority of false tornado and funnel-cloud reports from spotters and non-spotters. (Photo: David Paterson) 14
Education & Training Courses Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute (EMI) EMI has resident courses (on-campus) and an Independent Study Program (ISP) that involves distance learning. Since many disasters that emergency managers and first-responders deal with are weather-related, weather issues will be a part of some of EMI’s courses. For detailed information about EMI educational opportunities, go to this web site: http://training.fema.gov/ or http://training.fema.gov/IS/. A description of a typical course follows. IS-271 Anticipating Hazardous Weather & Community Risk– if you are an emergency manager or first-responder, this course will help you by: � Enhancing your ability to recognize potentially hazardous weather and flooding situations and how they may affect your community � Familiarizing you with NWS products so that you understand how to use and interpret forecasts � Encouraging you to develop a partnership with the NWS well in advance of a threat For more information on this course, visit this web site: http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS271.asp Prototype Curriculum for Associate Degrees in Emergency Management EMI has a list of proposed courses for an associate degree via EMI at the following link: http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:NWIEBnZIt28J:training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/proto.doc+FEMA- NWS+courses&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us Locally-taught EMI weather- related courses Some EMI courses are taught by state-level emergency management in conjunction with WCMs from the NWS. Contact your state-level Emergency Management Training Officer or the WCM who services your area for detains. For example: G272 - Warning Coordination - This 1½-day field course is the latest in the hazardous weather series of courses produced in partnership with the NWS. It is designed to be conducted jointly by an NWS WCM and state emergency management staff for an audience of local emergency managers. Every year the United States experiences more severe weather than any other country in the world. In order to reduce deaths, injuries, and property losses, emergency managers must work closely with the NWS and the news media to provide effective warnings that can be received and understood by people at risk. This course is intended to help facilitate that process. Course topics include The Social Dimensions of Warning Response; Developing Effective Warning Messages; Developing an Effective Community Warning Process; and working with the news media to create a Weather Warning Partnership. 15
Page 1 and 2: Table of Contents Activities Safety
Page 3 and 4: NWS Safety Campaigns http://www.wea
Page 5 and 6: Weather Safety Rules http://www.nws
Page 7 and 8: Tornado Safety Rules � Avoid wind
Page 9 and 10: StormReady®/ TsunamiReady StormRea
Page 11 and 12: Severe Weather Spotter Training Sev
Page 13: Spotters. Two modules are currently
Page 17 and 18: NWS Publications The Office of Clim
Page 19 and 20: NWS Student Educational Employment

Section 7: Outreach and Education Activities - NOAA

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